Prevalence of Yeasts in Locally Produced Cheese

To generate a comprehensive profile of viable yeasts on cheese as it is purchased by consumers, 40 samples of locally produced cheese were obtained from four Slovakian farms and sampled. The samples were cultured on Malt extract agar with bromocresol green and cultivated for 5 days at 25 °C. Selected colonies were cultured overnight on TSA agar aerobically and used for identification. Pure cultures were obtained and identified by mass spectrometry, as well as growth characteristics and colony morphology. The yeast Candida kefyr was the most abundant yeast, present in 90 % of all cheese samples. From the non-smoked and smoked cheese a total of 10 species of 5 yeast genera were identified with MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry.